Chris Zimmerman and Tanner Hawkins stand behind the bar of the Rainbow Cafe on Monday, March 28, 2022. They acquired the establishment in December. The pair plans to make some improvements but say they will retain the decor and ambiance of Pendleton’s longest continually operating business.

PENDLETON — Pendleton’s most famous bar is under new ownership.

Business partners Tanner Hawkins and Chris Zimmerman bought the historic Rainbow Cafe late last year, taking over for the McGee family. Hawkins, a farmer north of Pendleton, and Zimmerman, an office manager for his father’s chiropractic office, officially bought the Rainbow on Dec. 28, the Rainbow’s New Years celebration acting as an unofficial coming out party for the bar’s new owners.

Hawkins and Zimmerman view themselves as stewards of one of Pendleton’s oldest businesses, and are looking to maintain the spirit of the Rainbow that’s been established over the decades.

“It’s more than just a bar and cafe,” Hawkins said. “It’s an iconic little piece (of) downtown Pendleton. If it was any other business, I don’t know that Chris and I ever would have pulled the trigger.”

The Rainbow, the oldest continuously operating bar in Oregon, began its life in 1883 as The State Saloon and Banquet, its business including both a brothel and opium den. After operating as a cigar shop during the Prohibition years, the business relaunched as the Rainbow, gaining its iconic neon sign and Irish themes in the early 1940s.

An accomplished drag car racer and longtime auto shop owner, Steve McGee moved from Lake Oswego back to his hometown of Pendleton in 1999 and bought the Rainbow with his wife, Joanne. McGee died in 2017, but Joanne continued to run the bar until selling it to Hawkins and Zimmerman.

The pair said they didn’t buy the Rainbow looking to make money. They’re keeping their day jobs and plan to reinvest any profits they make from operating the Rainbow back into the business. Hawkins said the new owners plan to renovate the Rainbow’s bathrooms and are looking into converting the building’s second story space into a vacation rental. But otherwise the core look and service that the Rainbow has been offering for decades will remain.

“We’re not going to turn it into an Applebee’s,” Hawkins said. “It’s gonna stay what it is. We’re going to upgrade the bathrooms. (They) really need it. There’s a lot of wear and tear that can be upgraded. But the Rainbow itself is not is not going to change.”

The Rainbow is open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. six days per week (it closes at midnight on Sundays), meaning it serves both the early-morning coffee klatches and the late-night bar crowds. Zimmerman and Hawkins said they’ve been on both sides of the customer spectrum and wanted to respect the views of long standing patrons.

Hawkins said the pair consulted with regulars and staff to make sure they got the traditions and decorations right during St. Patrick’s Day, one of the Rainbow’s biggest days of the year. Following two years of COVID-19, Hawkins said they were happy with the packed house they saw on March 17.

The partners credited staff for ensuring the business stayed open during the ownership transition. Hawkins compared the learning curve of operating a restaurant and bar to “drinking out of a fire hose,” but he and Zimmerman have been able to lean on the Rainbow’s workers to help teach them the ropes, from working with vendors to contacting temporary employees who help out during busy times.

Hawkins and Zimmerman said their workforce ranges from 12-15 employees, but they would like to hire more permanent workers to help keep their staff from getting stretched too thin. When a dishwasher called in sick one day, Zimmerman said he washed dishes for five hours at the Rainbow to help keep things moving.

While the new owners’ first St. Patrick’s Day is already in the books, summer event season is right around the corner. Hawkins said the Rainbow made a deal with Jackalope Jamboree to become the June music festival’s official afterparty.

The Rainbow also is keeping an eye on the culmination of Pendleton’s event season: the Round-Up. In the eyes of the Rainbow, Round-Up is “three or four St. Patrick’s Days” put together.